The present invention relates to an air conditioner for a vehicle including a front pillar which is disposed diagonally in front of a passenger and extends slant in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle.
Conventionally, the following structures as an air conditioner for a vehicle, particularly for a so-called open car, are known.
Namely, there are provided blowoff ports to blow off conditioned air toward foot portions of passengers at both side faces of a center console disposed between a driver's seat and a passenger's seat, and when a roof detecting sensor detects opening of a roof, an air conditioning mode is changed to a roof open mode so as to blow off the conditioned air toward the foot portions of the passengers from the blowoff ports, whereby a comfortable air-conditioning feeling can be obtained by avoiding an uncomfortable cool-feeling due to an outside air flowing into a passenger compartment of the vehicle when the roof of the open car opens (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-12020).
Further, there is provided state detecting means for detecting an opening/closing state of a convertible top, and when the state detecting means detects opening of the convertible top, air is allowed to be blown off from a blowoff port provided at a front header so as to prevent the outside air from flowing into the passenger compartment of the vehicle from the opened top during a vehicle running, whereby the function of air conditioning can be attained properly (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-266841).
However, the above-described conventional structures still had a problem that efficient air conditioning could not be provided for a neck portion and its surroundings of the passenger which are sensitive to the passenger's air conditioning feeling.
Generally, it is known that the passenger can feel the air-conditioning feeling sufficiently by receiving the conditioned air at the passenger's thigh portion, lower portion of an armpit or neck portion. This can be applied to not only the open car but also a normal car with a closed roof, and it was still a problem to be solved how the proper air-conditioning effect could be obtained, particularly, for the neck portion and its surroundings of the passenger.